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Chemistry Jan 31 1st block reflection
Class went well. Having the agenda on the board was helpful, and having done it before was too. Students seemed to enjoy the talking about the weekend, and were generally respectful the rest of class, even w/o a break.

Problems I had were not having enough copies of notes, for students who had lost them. I would have liked to have had a scheduled break.

Ideas I have are to have an actual place set up with supplies to re-bind books and the like.

Feb 8 1st block reflection
today students paid more attention during the presentation. during the book work time I ahd to remind them often to focus. I feel like I am trying to work on too many abilities with them at once, and the longer that keep not getting organized or focusing on one aspect at a time, the greater their distraction will be.

Ideas for solutions is to be more organized and focus on just one study ability/learning technique at a time.

I feel students have some study attributes already:
 * curiosity
 * some have motivation
 * some can read
 * some can keep on task
 * They will listen and absorb many things.
 * they can be quite and subdued

For next class we need to finish the Density demonstration. And talk about the Population density.

Video: []
mechanics replaced by materials watches- pendulum- spring -quartz crystal Silicon chips- replacing vacuum tubes Glass-colored by gold/silver on a molecular level robots- lacking mechanical parts disease recognizing material through Chemistry

February 15 reflections (whole class)
I didn't double check my tests and as a result made a mistake on the density question. Every time I handed out the test I forgot to have that mistake corrected.

When referring to notes in the note books I have a hard time naming the page students should be turned to.
 * I should always have a tittle, and possibly a page number? for every note page.

I started the Lab safety read off.

Journal Entry: What properties of metals do you know? Appearance? Conductivity? Density? Melting Point? Placement on the Periodic Table? What can Metal have done to it? (Describe Metals)
need to focus on standards. What have I covered and what do I need to cover.

Aquiring materials takes time. need to plan at least a week and a half ahead of time.

Flinn Scientific note for before labs: have prep questions: first ask safety question, then a few goal oriented questions

Goggle safety

team planning: I need to prepare what groups will look like before the labs start

February 17 Plan for 1st Block:
Journal Entry: In what ways do we test metal and other products for safety? (4 examples)

Remind students to bring: Safety contracts and CD cases for next week

Poll the class for Journal Entry

Ask where those tests started and what sort of standards are expected -leads into putting up time line wall and standards grouping:

If we have time at the end of class we will review the Paper Clip failure test and tie it into standard

February 25
Plan time, or a student to set up projector and dvd: In first period class especially, this has caused a great deal of lost time.

Feb 27
I noticed this week, as usual, I often don't accomplish much of what I had planned.
 * -Either I can plan less
 * -or I need to have better control over what is happening and it's pacing
 * How will I determine this?
 * Then what can I change?

Mar 4
Metal properties Lab today needed to be more prepared then I had it, but the students sure enjoyed rolling the coins. It also took longer then I had expected Next time
 * I need to have copies made out ahead of time
 * timed how long it take s to do each Lab
 * for the less engaging ones, the groups would have liked to have been smaller

Mar 6 Sun
There has been great improvement in 1st Block. I feel it is due to two factors: I need to be prepared for third block more. They quiet down nicely, but I need to maximize on that by being organized when they enter. $th Block has a lot of down time as a consequence too. All the prep I did for 3rd leaves me prepared for the fewer people that make-up fourth block.
 * 1) Recognition of the affect of not having my trust will eliminate ability to do labs (which the other classes are doing)
 * 2) 20 minute recess with time docked for comments to the class for focusing (this was a joint effort of the students and I)
 * 3) Possibly a third is my discussing these cause and affects with them and tying it into life lessons

In grading, I have all my grading done for this last week because of the innovation of taking a written record throughout the week...but also becasue the one written assignment only had seven submissions (everyone else received 0's) Mixed results.

Mar 31 fri, lessons from "Teaching from Reading"
Advanced phonics/Complex word recognition:

less visuals a problem past 3rd grade liturature....in science too?

Treat Vocabulary and Spelling lists differently? how?

Apr 2 Sun, "Teaching of Reading"
Word wall: Categorize in different ways, add pictures, cut out around the word shape do word wall activities to increase recoginition.

April 9 Sat, "teaching of Reading"
Chemistry poems read aloud, then either students read them back or make thier own.[] "Ode to a Proton" is funny and informative

In my Elements assignment I could have students have an option between writing a poem about the element or making a visual along with their report.

Choral reading (and attention keeper) When I introduce new words I can have students read them out loud after I say them

Apr 19, Plans for next year:
assign goggles to students

May 1 Sun, "teaching of Reading"
Comprehension: teach the following four strategies, each for about a week at the beginning of the year: Previewing Click and Clunk (monitoring for understanding and vocabulary knowledge) Get the Gist (main idea) Wrap-up ( self-questioning and passage understanding)

Taken from //Teaching Reading Comprehension Through Collaborative Strategic Reading// by Sharon Vaughn and Janette Kettman Klinger in Vol.34 No. 5 May 1999, Intervention in school and Clinic

After students have these skills down they can be broken into heterogeneous groups 1 strong reader 1 leader poor readers spread out no one that commonly disagrees in any one group

Each group has a role: leader: keeps focus on the four strategies and everyone has opportunity to participate Clunk expert: reminds the group of how to figure out a word (and records clunks and solutions) gist expert: reminds group about steps to figure out main idea (and records them) Announcer: calls on members to read or share ideas, and represents the group when the teacher calls on the group

May 4 after 1st block
When dealing with consequences for the whole class, worked well. I started with writing on the board the reason consequesnces were needed: "What responsabilities do we have for break?" a group of students were not hanging out in my feild of vision, until I hunted them down to ask them to come back to the field.

Then I gave three options a. no more breaks b. take a break from breaks for a day c. stay in class for breaks the rest of the year Students were very responsive and accepting of this.

Things for next Chem teacher at NACA
This year I learned having a activities planned ahead of time is a must for a number of reasons Students will engage work if they feel there is structure. There are so many different ways we can take Chemistry, remember to keep it simple. Integrate math and metric measurement early and often, but keep it simple, in order to monitor who is not catching on.
 * ordering materials (often need at least two weeks, not to mention organizing funding)
 * checking what materials we already have and which we will need
 * practicing the activity ahead of time
 * planning for classroom management, intro and conclusion

Things I learned for myself
especially after a year of seeming disorder they are going to want structure. I had grand dreams of putting up a calendar marking due dates and projects. if a large assignment is assigned, have check points along the way to be sure students are not left cramming at the end. Give clear safety instructions before every lab, especially if there is 'exploration' encouraged. fire- Having set discipline expectations is helpful, students are responsive if follow-up is consistent. I was lax with smart phones and I pods at the beginning of the year,

two years ago a big concern was giving students a sense of urgency. There is something about the balance that I did not find, but that I felt I was honing in on. There needs to be a balance between urgency and providing the correct task management scaffolding. If there are strong deadlines, the strong students will adjust accordingly and increase the atmosphere of the classroom, but if there is not task management scaffolding occurring, students who struggle will simply get worse. It is easy to get upset with students that do not seem to take a due date seriously, but as a teacher I feel it is my obligation to provide both the urgency as well as the tools with which to improve upon patterns of late work. I saw a great deal of response to solid deadlines, especially when I made sure to scaffold. Unfortunately, in my case, I too often lacked the organization to create helpful scaffolding for project completion. Though I got to see a few shining moments in my performance and that of my students, too often I had assignments with shuffling due dates because I did not feel I gave my struggling students enough scaffolds.

This is partly affected by attendance struggles too. Our students are out for a number of cultural obligations, so having a strong system for handling make up work would be very helpful. Many students come in before hand and tell you when they will be gone and ask for make-up work. I never seemed to get that part down, again due to my lack of organization.

The bus some times runs late in the morning, so planning for at least 15 minutes of time that all the students won't be there will be helpful for you.

May 7 Friday: Things learned
When Frank pointed out "discipline, then content" he was also indicating what NACA was looking for. they are looking for a safe environment for students, then for for content.

In my case especially, I tried to do way too much content and did not create much discipline. As a result neither seemed to come out well.

May 8 Sat: Things learned
What a year! I got to learn so much. I forgot to keep in mind The "Big Idea." and keep it simple Frank told me last semester "students are telling me that you are too complicated." I tried to llisten to him but I really pushed it off at the same time.

Frank and Kelley Peters both pointed out that "less is more, especially for a first year teacher."

during the letting go conference with Kara and Frank, Frank offered that I had a lot of ideas but none of them materialized. When I pressed him for more advice he said that his Master teacher had told him "Discipline first then Content."

This of course all reflects back on What Father told me when He explained that I have the 'Messiah complex" Where I feel like I have to save the whole world. "it's already been done."

Eric Brunsen, my Science methods teacher from UW Oshkosh, spoke about "the Big Idea," and also reminded us that with all the standardized testing that people have tried to cram too much into their curriculum. Schools wouldn't let go of their own curriculum and tried t cram in all of what the standards asked for.

May 18 Wed: thoughts on daily grading
I started off with grading journal entries by checking at the end of week: too much work Then I graded by marking/ stamping on them and making a color coded dot on my seating arrangement: better but a lot of time wasted. my desire was to reward success more than simply mark down those who didn't succeed. To improve upon this I could still do the stamps for students who succeed, and only doc off for students who have gone out of their way to not follow directions. Another thought is to start the habit of those who received stamps to hand them in and I just record the names from there. if they are in alphabetical order. Or they could have a library card sort of paper that they set next to their journal when they are done. I stamp both the card and their paper, and they hand the card in at the end of the week. I could have the card something that they pick up at the beginning of class, so it never leaves the room, and always returns to alphabetic order.

May 19 Thurs: Permision slip thoughts
If I expected students to have their slips in on time, I also feel I should have let those know who were not going to have them allowed more promptly. T"he reason for this is so that I could also assess who was legitimately not able to get the slips to me as well. I did double check with students every day of that week though, so That was a success on my part.

May 23 Mon: Pre test idea
Pictionary can be used to assess studnent's knowledge of a few assumed terms.

Also Pictionary can be used numerous times throughout the year in order to develop the habit of trying to communicate about the ideas (publishing and a visual, kinesthetic reenforcement)

May 26 Thurs: assignment return
I have had a problem returning assignments in a timely manner...or at all. I need to come up with a better method.